The Shamanic Dance
The Shamanic Dance
‘The Shamanic Dance’ was painted as a meditation on the ancient Bird Goddess of Neolithic Cultures.
The transformative power of the Great Goddess includes her ability to take on other forms – animals in general however particularly of birds and snakes with the earliest Bird Goddess Temples discovered dating back to 6000 BC in northern Greece. However, the symbolic markings that represent the Bird Goddess of chevrons and V’s goes back to at least 15,000BC.
An original artwork in acrylic and finished in oils on archival watercolour paper of 350gsm.
27cm x 37cm
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The ancient Bird Goddess appears in Palaeolithic carvings and right through the Neolithic period. Then throughout classical ancient times she has appeared linked to the worship of many important Goddesses in the form of their sacred bird companion. For example, Aphrodite’s dove, Athena’s owl, Saraswati’s peacock and on the list goes with Goddesses all around the world and their sacred bird companion. She is Keeper of the powers of Air and possesses multiple aspects: the Maiden whose singing brings the dawn, the Mother of Winds who hatches the Cosmic Egg and the dark-winged Crone who guides spirits of the newly dead into the heavenly afterlife. These different aspects are often connected in the mythological landscape to the kind of bird that attends her. From the songbirds of the Celtic Rhiannon to the vultures of Egyptian Mut, the Bird Goddess brings messages and omens on swift wings from the Otherworld. She covers her children with the soft feathers of her nurturing breast and feeds their bodies with her sacred eggs. Souls are weighed against the feather of her Truth and her keen eye sees through all deceptions into the future. Her sharp talons and beak tear away the gross material forms that limit and bind in time allowing the imagination to soar free.